Tribe eyes tapping maple syrup market

The Passamaquoddy Tribe is pursuing a plan to tap into the maple syrup market, using 28,000 acres it owns around Jackman.
Chief Clayton Cleaves of Pleasant Point says he had been hoping that 35,000 trees could be tapped this coming season, but the project probably will not move forward until 2013. When the operation is at full-scale production after three or four years, some 200,000 trees would tapped, which would make the tribe the largest maple-syrup producer in the U.S.
The sap would be boiled down in the Jackman area and then trucked Downeast for "more refining," bottling in containers and packaging. Along with maple syrup, sugar and candy, Cleaves envisions value-added products with baskets of syrup and blueberries or cranberries.
According to the tribe's consultant, Maine Gold, which is a maple syrup company based in Rockland, only 20% to 25% of the maple syrup market worldwide is being met. Cleaves observes that there's a "75% untapped market resource" for the product. Noting that there are many countries that don't have maple syrup and that waffle or pancake houses may not use real maple syrup, he says there is a high demand for the product.
The project will be a joint endeavor of both the Pleasant Point and Indian Township tribal governments. The necessary funding for the project is estimated to be as much as $800,000, and the tribe is looking at U.S. Department of Agriculture funding along with private investors. Cleaves is not sure how much the tribe will need to contribute to leverage some of the funding.
Cleaves points out that the Passamaquoddy are one of the Algonquin tribes, and maple syrup was first used by the Algonquin.